In this photo, Dan Williams negotiates one of the several hairpin turns headed for the finish line. Note the condition of the road surface in this 1956 shot of Hamill Road.
Once each year, for several years during the 1950s, members of the Sports Car Association of Tennessee staged exciting hill climbing events on Hamill Road in Hixson. These races involved driving the course from the starting line at the intersection of Hamill Road and Gann’s Store Road to the finish line at the top of Big Ridge at the intersection of Hamill Road and Fairview Road.
Each driver raced the clock. In the 1955 event, the winning entry was the Porsche 550 Spyder driven by Dan Clippinger, of Chattanooga.
His winning time was 51.1 seconds.
Many types of sports cars were involved, including machines with familiar names like Porsche, Jaguar, Corvette, Thunderbird, MG, Austin Healey, and others.
If you attended any of these events your memories of the details, along with copies of any photos you have, would help us recall and document those days. Do you know which years these events were held? If you have memories or photographs involving these races, I would appreciate hearing from you. Tom Williams. E-mail: trw_jr@yahoo.com.